Mercyhurst's Vallimont Drafted By Marlins

Mercyhurst starting pitcher selected in fifth round of the 2018 Major League Baseball Draft.

Tuesday, June 5th 2018, 5:38 PM EDT by John Lydic

Updated:

Tuesday, June 5th 2018, 5:40 PM EDT

Mercyhurst University starting pitcher Chris Vallimont joined a long list of baseball players for the Lakers to join Major League Baseball.

The 6'5" junior was selected in the fifth round, 147th overall of the 2018 MLB First-Year Player Draft by the Miami Marlins.

Vallimont is the second highest Laker to be drafted into the majors with Dan Altavilla going six spots higher in 2014 when he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners.

The Mercyhurst ace is the 19th players in the school's history to be drafted and is the sixth player in the last six seasons to make the jump. Vallimont is the 12th player to be selected into the MLB draft under Mercyhurst head coach Joe Spano.

The Erie native finished just completed a record-setting junior season on the mound. The Mercyhurst Prep graduate helped the Lakers reach their second ever College Baseball World Series.

He compiled a school-record 147 strikeouts over 80.1 innings while going 10-3 in 2018. Vallimont had a 16.47 strikeouts per nine innings this past year which was the highest in Division II.